Story ran on Huffington Post, Feb 16, 2013

Honeybees are incomparable; their honey is one of Nature’s greatest riches attracting honey-hunting humans for millions of years dating back into the Paleolithic period as far back as the Old Stone Age.

Archeologists have documented almost 400 sites in 17 regions, including Europe, North and South Africa, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Australia, where ancient peoples recorded the cherished honey-hunt in detailed petroglyphs.

Shamans with supernatural powers climbed trees with vine ladders, carrying collection baskets tied to their waists, to fearlessly raid hives. The shamans knew that honey was loaded with vitamins and minerals.

In fact, honey contains water-soluble B1, B2, B6, pantothenic and nicotinic acids, vitamin C – as well as high amounts of fat soluble vitamins E, K and A. Honey also provides us with essential minerals: calcium, phosphorus, potassium, iron, copper, manganese, magnesium and sulfur. Some of these minerals in the specific concentrations found in honey mimic the concentrations of blood serum. Therefore, honey metabolizes easily, can be an important source of essential nutrients; and with all its sugars, it’s an excellent, healthy source of caloric energy.

The shamans also knew that honey was filled with potent healing properties. Modern science corroborates their ancient knowledge: Honey contains over 200 substances.

It turns out that bees secrete a glucose oxidase enzyme that assists in converting nectar into honey. Along with oxygen, the glucose enzyme splits the glucose molecule into water and hydrogen peroxide. Due to its hydrogen peroxide and glucose oxidase content – honey is a powerful antiseptic.

High amounts of malic, citric, tartaric, oxalic and other organic acids combined with enzyme catalase and peroxidase give honey its renowned antibacterial properties.

New Zealand’s manuka honey carries high levels of a chemical called methyl-glyoxal, which stops bacterial infections including drug-resistant, hospital-killing bugs e.g. Staphylococus aureus. Manuka honey kills microbes even after the hydrogen peroxide is gone because it packs powerful medicinal bee enzymes that disrupt cellular activity in germs.

Mayan shamans revered the stingless honeybees and successfully treated cataracts, conjunctivitis, chills and fever with honey-based medicines. By the way, with over 80 percent sugar content and its natural acidity, honey creates an inhospitable environment for single-celled microbes that form infections. That’s why some modern bandage companies line their products with diluted traces of honey.

Rapid climate change is not only bringing us snowstorms like Nemo, superstorms like Sandy or weeks on end of summer rains like those experienced last year in the UK. Climate change is also bringing intense and prolonged droughts like those currently enveloping Australia, Spain, United States and elsewhere.

In 2011, Western Australian beekeepers faced a drought that ushered in the worst honey crop in more than three decades. The Australian drought persisted; in 2012 Victorian beekeepers endured their worst honey season on record.

Plants stop producing flowers during intense droughts exacerbated by searing heat-waves (like those occurring around the globe, today). Without flowers bees have no food (nectar and pollen), they die. And without bees most plants cannot cross-pollinate or produce seeds. It’s a frightening glimpse of a potential uncoupling of one of Nature’s most important biological land-based partnerships: Flowers and Bees.

According to the Australian Federal parliament inquiry: Bees may be facing a major food crisis. The Australian government are asking farmers and city gardeners to help bee populations survive by planting bee-friendly gardens without using any insecticides.

In 2012, New Zealand’s manuka honey production tumbled by 60 percent whilst its price spiked by 33 percent. University of Canterbury scientists are calling for a significant reduction of insecticides (all neonictinoids), and for more uncultivated bee habitat and nesting sites to provide safe food sources amongst agricultural landscapes. Bees directly contribute $5 billion to New Zealand’s economy, annually.

Continuous summer rains and lack of flowers pummeled Britain’s honey production in 2012 by 72 percent – most bees never left their hives, instead they shivered and starved to death.

Honey production in Spain, the 12th largest honey producer on the globe, also felt the wrath of drought; down by a whopping 70 percent in 2012.

Bees are responsible for pollinating most of our foods (including beef and dairy), the cotton we wear, 44 million pounds of beeswax and 2.65 billion pounds of honey, that we eat each year, globally.

We are running out of time to combat more than 85 million metric tons of greenhouse gases emitted daily: Earth’s bees are clearly showing scientists that they cannot conduct their business of pollinating and making honey – as climate disruption escalates, quickly.

It’s time to embrace efficiency and innovation, and the dictum of the London School of Economics co-founder George Bernard Shaw: “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.”

Join the march on Washington at noon at the Mall on Sunday Feb 17, 2013

Australia, Radio 1, National: Ockham’s Razor

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Superstorm Sandy

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Bees and our Environment

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Great Barrier reef in Trouble

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Protecting our Oceans

Save the Oceans

Oceans Dying

Bees helping humankind

Save our Florida corals

Operation Bee founder testimonial

Earth Dr Reese Halter is an award-winning broadcaster and distinguished biologist. His latest books are The Insatiable Bark Beetle and The Incomparable Honeybee

Contact Earth Dr Reese Halter

Text © by Dr Reese Halter 2013. All rights reserved.

Dr Reese Halter and millions of honeybees in Tucson, Ariz.

Story ran Santa Monica Daily Press October 23, 2012

Recently, students from University of South Florida’s Patel School of Global Sustainability asked me what natural system could they examine and readily learn from. I replied, the honeybee hive.

Around the globe, over 1.8 trillion honeybees work in concert for their respective hives or cities of approximately 100,000 animals. And they do so, all for the common well-being of the colony.

Honeybees produce an astounding array of services and goods including pollinating most of our food crops, 2.2 billion pounds of honey and 44 million pounds of beeswax, annually. Incidentally, the Roman Catholic Church uses 3.1 million pounds of beeswax in their candles each year.

Honeybees also produce millions of pounds of propolis. They mix tree resin collected from buds, leaves and bark with enzymes from their gut into a potent, sticky substance or glue that’s used throughout the hive. Propolis is also loaded with flavinoids, amino- and fatty-acids, making it a powerful anti-oxidant, anti-viral, anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and cancer-arresting compound. Last month researchers discovered that propolis effectively stopped growth of prostate cancer in mice.

Selfless and indefatigable honeybee genes collectively make the honeybee hive the most optimal food service industry that I’m aware of. As many as 96,000 female workers rise before sunup and work just past sundown. There’s zero percent unemployment and multi-tasking is common place. Scout bees are constantly searching for new patches of nectar, pollen, water and tree resin.

When scouts locate rich patches of the aforementioned resources they fly back to the hive and communicate to other workers by performing a precise and elaborate waggle dance. Within 10 minutes or less tens of thousands of workers change their tasks. There’s no human factory with as many workers able to alter production within such a short time frame.

Consider this: It takes 66,000 bee-hours of activity to produce the 77,000 splendid hexagonal cells that form the comb of the hive. Almost 20 pounds of honey are required for young worker bees to produce two pounds of beeswax. Bees eat the honey and trigger a gland in their abdomen to secrete wax. The bees then chew the wax flakes to soften them.

Two pounds of this hearty wax can support 48 pounds of honey — more than 20 times its own weight. Many decades ago, the aeronautics industry recognized the strength of honeycomb and adapted nature’s design to enhance the bending and stiffness of aircraft wings, as the wings must support heavy loads of fuel in the aircraft.

It turns out that honeybees and humans share many similarities: we socialize, dance, eat honey, touch, feel, mimic one another, sleep, enjoy caffeine and nicotine, and we vote. By the way, it takes about 13 honeybees to form a quorum.

Interestingly, bees are showing scientists many lessons readily applicable to existing businesses as well as inspiring new innovations. For instance, real-world applications from the beehive have been translated to optimize a web-hosting company. Honeybee communication systems have been adopted by programmers to efficiently run Internet servers, which must contend with lulls and surges in traffic volume. By using the honeybee hive model, online Internet sales rose by as much as 20 percent whilst energy consumption fell by 20 percent.

Hexagonal honeycomb architecture has inspired scientists to develop nano-sized magnets, in a material called spin ice, that is leading to new types of electronic devices with far greater processing capacity than currently exists.

Honeybees have been trained, within five minutes and an accuracy of 98 percent, to respond to greater than 60 odors, from methamphetamine to TNT and enriched uranium to tuberculosis and diabetes. Around the globe, honeybees will soon be deployed to protect humankind in war zones, shipping ports, airports, international borders, sports stadiums and doctors’ offices.

In the meantime, many Fairmont Hotels are now keeping beehives on their rooftops, helping pollinate millions of urban trees and offering healthy honey for their chefs to create delicious recipes.

The next time you enjoy a tablespoon of local honey, remember that 12 worker bees spent their entire foraging lives of three weeks flying a combined distance of over 6,000 miles to produce it.

Please do not use insecticides, herbicides, miticides or fungicides in your yard or balcony. Especially in light of the irrefutable research from Britain, France and the U.S. that neonictinoids are known to kill honey- and bumble-bees.

Australia, Radio 1, National: Ockham’s Razor

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Superstorm Sandy

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Bees and our Environment

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Great Barrier reef in Trouble

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Protecting our Oceans

Save the Oceans

Oceans Dying

Bees helping humankind

Save our Florida corals

Operation Bee founder testimonial

Earth Dr Reese Halter is an award-winning broadcaster and distinguished biologist. His latest books are The Insatiable Bark Beetle and The Incomparable Honeybee

Contact Earth Dr Reese Halter

Text © by Dr Reese Halter 2013. All rights reserved.

Sea turtles are ancient but not primitive. Having evolved on land some 200 million years ago, they spend their entire lives at sea except to lay eggs on rugged beaches around the globe.

Leatherback turtles are the largest of the seven sea-fairing species and they are truly remarkable, most worthy of admiration and in need of protection.

Leatherbacks are Earth’s last warm-blooded reptiles and their weight can easily exceed one ton.

All sea turtles except leatherbacks have shells. Leatherbacks instead have backs with a jigsaw of thousands of small, thin bones overlaid by a thick matrix of oily fat and fibrous tissue. Their belly has only a narrow oval bone with heavy fibrous tissues.

They are the fastest-growing and heaviest reptiles in Nature. And the fastest swimming turtle with the widest distribution.

Their four legs are wings in the sea and shovels on the beach.

Leatherbacks live in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

Atlantic leatherback’s nest every other year with clutches of about 85 eggs. Pacific leatherback’s nest every fourth year and only produce clutch sizes of approximately 65 eggs.

After the female digs the nest, she fills the chamber with eggs, but the first couple dozen are yokeless. It is thought that these first eggs provide air spaces at the top of the nest, stabilize humidity, protect against fungus and insects, and after two months of incubation provide “elbow-room” for the unusually long-winged hatchlings.

Just like the dinosaurs – the sex of the sea turtle eggs are determined by nesting temperature. That is, if the eggs are slightly warmer the offspring will be female; conversely cooler temperatures yield males.

A hatchling will grow 30 times its size and add 6,000 fold in weight. They probably mature by the age of 12 and live in the wild for almost 60 years.

Leatherback’s born in Trinidad, St. Croix, Costa Rica, French Guiana, Florida and South Carolina travel north to the icy waters of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. They have adapted to these frigid conditions with bones that are tipped with cartilage packed with blood vessels rich in nutrients – a trait common in mammals.

Leatherbacks gorge themselves on giant stinging lion’s mane and moon jellyfish (some in excess of two metres wide). Extremely long esophagi enable each leatherback to consume about three-dozen jellies a day.

This region of the North Atlantic is the richest feeding ground for leatherbacks on Earth.

From Cape Breton they journey thousands of miles to the shores of Spain or North Africa before returning to breed in the southeastern Atlantic.

Leatherbacks are also the deepest deep-sea divers on the globe. Their incredible high red blood-cell density allows them to out-dive even sperm whales as they forage three-quarters of mile beneath the surface.

Leatherbacks – like other sea turtles and sea birds – have glands near their eyes that filter and discharge salt enabling these animals to drink full-strength salt water without dehydration.

Populations of leatherbacks in the Pacific travel an astounding 6,835 miles from the shores of Japan (and a small fraction from Australia) to Baja, Mexico or from New Guinea to western Costa Rica. Populations appear to stay for a couple decades off their migratory shores before swimming across the Pacific to breed.

Leatherbacks have the widest distribution of any animal in the world except some of the great whales.

The only natural predator of leatherbacks was T-Rex; they went extinct about 65 million years ago.

At the dawn of the 20th century there were very likely billions of sea turtles. Over the last 100 years at least 90 percent of sea turtles have vanished.

Each year approximately 1.4 billion hooks from commercial fisheries are set into the oceans. Longlines are fishing lines up to 60 miles, dangling hundreds but more likely thousands of baited hooks; and as many as 10 leatherbacks have been caught in a single set of a line.

Egg poachers have also annihilated leatherback populations.

There are about 35,000 female leatherbacks remaining on the planet.

In the Atlantic, conservation biologists and indigenous Peoples are working together to save the leatherbacks and some of the populations are beginning to respond. For instance, from 1980 to 2000 the St. Croix’s leatherbacks have rebounded from 20 to 200 or a tenfold increase.

Pacific populations, however, are in dire jeopardy especially from egg poachers.

Senseless poaching in the 21st century is unacceptable. If allowed to breed leatherback populations will slowly rebound. They have survived on our planet for over 100 million years: their extinction must be prevented.

Australia, Radio 1, National: Ockham’s Razor

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Superstorm Sandy

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Bees and our Environment

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Great Barrier reef in Trouble

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Protecting our Oceans

Save the Oceans

Oceans Dying

Bees helping humankind

Save our Florida corals

Operation Bee founder testimonial

Earth Dr Reese Halter is an award-winning broadcaster and distinguished biologist. His latest books are The Insatiable Bark Beetle and The Incomparable Honeybee

Contact Earth Dr Reese Halter

Text © by Dr Reese Halter 2013. All rights reserved.

Who are the REAL Eco-terrorists, “TransCanada?!”  ”Eco-terrorism” is a word made up by the U.S. and Canadian Governments that is a contradictory term!  ”Eco” means habitat or environment, and “terrorism” is the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce, especially for political purposes.  Peaceful protests and contacting your elected officials to ensure the safety and preservation of the environment, to include the people and wildlife in it, are called for by a plethora of environmentally-friendly organizations like the Sierra Club, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) and the Rainforest Action Network.  You cannot  call these and dozens of other “eco-friendly,” grassroots organizations and millions of their supporters “eco-terrorists!”  The TRUE “eco-terrorists” are the governments, including politicians, and the corporations (that run such governments through lobbyist money and bribery) who purposely destroy our environment for nothing more than pure GREED and power-hungriness! “Eco-terrorism” is a corporate-political process that uses fear tactics such as surveillance, unwarranted arrests and even cold-blooded murder to achieve its goal of human rights suppression for regional or global dominance!- John Loeffler, Fountain City, Wisconsin, U.S.A.

Documents recently obtained by Bold Nebraska show that TransCanada – owner of the hotly-contested Keystone XL (KXL) tar sands pipeline – has colluded with an FBI/DHS Fusion Center in Nebraska, labeling non-violent activists as possible candidates for “terrorism” charges and other serious criminal charges.

Further, the language in some of the documents is so vague that it could also ensnare journalists, researchers and academics, as well.

TransCanada also built a roster of names and photos of specific individuals involved in organizing against the pipeline, including 350.org‘s Rae Breaux, Rainforest Action Network‘s Scott Parkin and Tar Sands Blockade‘s Ron Seifert. Further, every activist ever arrested protesting the pipeline’s southern half is listed by name with their respective photo shown, along with the date of arrest.

Read more important information here (source):  http://www.nationofchange.org/keystone-xl-activists-labeled-possible-eco-terrorists-internal-transcanada-documents-1371307987

Image via Earth Techling

Interesting article from Ron Fujita at the Environmental Defense Fund, reposted by EarthTechling

http://www.earthtechling.com/2013/06/ocean-thermal-energy-conversion-technology-and-its-possibilites/

Story ran on Malibu Times Blog April 26, 2013

Imagine the most perfect tree on Earth: one that outdoes all others in magnificence, size, height, productivity, habitat, architecture and ability to draw thousands of gallons of water. Imagine, too, it is marvelously resistant to drought, fire, insects, disease, mudslides, flooding and wind, with exquisite biodiversity in its crown. Then, and only then, as John Muir put it, “you’d know the coastal monarch of their race” — the immortal Sequoia sempervirens, otherwise known as the coastal redwood.

Redwoods’ direct lineage can be traced back 144 million years ago to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period. That’s when Tyrannosaurus Rex was beginning to rule for 40 million years as no reptile nor animal has ever done since.

Redwoods are unique for many reasons. They are able to reproduce from both seed and organs, called lignotubers, located at the base of the tree just beneath the soil. No other conifer possesses this dual reproduction mechanism. It’s a trait that is widespread among the more advanced race of trees, the broadleaves or angiosperms, some 80 million years after the redwoods were born.

The tallest living tree on planet Earth is a coastal redwood measured at 379.3 feet high, and still growing. That’s twice the size of the Statue of Liberty, and the equivalent of a 38-story skyscraper. That tree was probably born when Jesus Christ walked the earth. It carries well over a billion needles—enough to cover one football field.

Redwoods store thousands of gallons of water, so in the summer months they never run dry. Consequently, they usually grow about 11 months of the year.

The wood doesn’t contain gooey pitch like spruce, pine, fir and larch, so it doesn’t burn easily. The fibrous foot-thick bark is an excellent insulator. In the northern range, fire frequencies are in the order of 700 to 800 years. The bark is high in tannic acid and the wood is full of essential oils, called terpenes, which make it rot resistant.

Though insects do infest redwoods, none can kill a mature tree by themselves.

Coastal redwoods have survived climate change, geologic upheavals and ice ages. Today they exist along a narrow strip of land 475 miles in length reaching from southwest Oregon to Big Sur, Calif.

Adapting to their environment enables redwoods to live for at least two thousand years, with abilities such as drawing water out of fog so they can continue to grow during summer dry periods. Sadly, climate change has reduced the number of summer fog days and the southern end of the range—the trees have begun to migrate, northward.

The real story occurs in the treetops, where redwoods can sprout a forest above a forest. Redwoods are capable of branch-to-branch, branch to trunk, and trunk-to-trunk fusions. Tree scientists think this is in response to mechanical damage and the insatiable ability to constantly seek more light in order to make more food.

These canopy-top grafts become sources to store and share water and nutrients and they stabilize the tree’s crown during storms. The enormous treetops also promote biodiversity. For example, there are 500-year-old saturated fern mats the size of a large mini van, weighing over 500 pounds, all suspended 200 feet above the ground in redwood treetops.

Of 80,000 tree species on Earth, there seems little question Muir was correct — regal redwoods indeed rule the coast.

Australia, Radio 1, National: Ockham’s Razor

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Superstorm Sandy

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Bees and our Environment

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Great Barrier reef in Trouble

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Protecting our Oceans

Save the Oceans

Oceans Dying

Bees helping humankind

Save our Florida corals

Operation Bee founder testimonial

Earth Dr Reese Halter is an award-winning broadcaster and distinguished biologist. His latest books are The Insatiable Bark Beetle and The Incomparable Honeybee

Contact Earth Dr Reese Halter

Text © by Dr Reese Halter 2013. All rights reserved.

Calling itself “green” doesn’t make it so.

A recent Public Accountability Initiative report, “Big Green Fracking Machine,” striped away the green paint to reveal the Heinz Endowments — a major CSSD sponsor — and various environmental groups represented on the center’s board of directors have “extensive undisclosed ties” to the very industry the center is trying to regulate.

Click here to read the full report.

Highlights:

• The major philanthropic force behind CSSD, The Heinz Endowments, has significant, undisclosed ties to the natural gas industry. The foundation has contributed more than $250,000 to CSSD, providing funding to every environmental group involved as well as to CSSD itself. Heinz Endowments president Robert F. Vagt is currently a director at Kinder Morgan*, a natural gas pipeline company, and owns more than $1.2 million in company stock.
• Environmental sponsors with CSSD board seats are closely linked to the natural gas industry. Although five environmental groups were involved in the discussions leading to CSSD’s creation, only three have seats on the Center’s board of directors.
• One of the groups on the CSSD board, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, is controlled by fracking interests: half of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council’s board comes from Marcellus Shale Coalition member companies and all but two directors come from companies with a stake in the natural gas industry.
• Another group on CSSD’s board, the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), has significant board and funder ties to the natural gas industry and has lent its name to studies proclaiming fracking to be environmentally safe that were later discredited.
• The third, the Clean Air Task Force, has ties to the industry through several board members.

Info Graphic of the Big Green Fracking Machine:

Like the Marcellus Shale Coalition’s “guidelines”, the CSSD’s “standards” do nothing to protect people and the environment from the hazards being inflicted by the natural gas industry.   Call it standards or guidelines, this is nothing more than greenwash designed to lull the public into a false sense of security.

The village of Potemkin would be proud.

Related:

• Fracking Center and Fluffy Kittens
• Marcellus Shale Coalition: In the Lobby
• MSC Database:  Transparent As Drilling Mud
• Environmental Defense Fund – Environment In Name Only (EINO)?

*Kinder Morgan - Richard Kinder: Chairman, CEO of Kinder Morgan, left his position as president and chief operating officer at Enron in 1996.  Kinder Morgan was formed in July 1999, when Kinder and his partners bought KN Energy, a Colorado-based pipeline company. Kinder and Bill Morgan, another former Enron executive and University of Missouri classmate, created the company that would become Kinder Morgan by buying Enron’s stake in natural-gas liquids and carbon dioxide lines.

©2013 by Dory Hippauf

Story ran on Huffington Post Feb 28, 2013

In January (2013) Homebase, B&Q and Wickes removed products containing bee-toxic insecticides called neonicotinoids. Recently, Notcutts, Hillier, Squires, Blue Diamond and SCATS, some 78 outlets across the UK, pulled products containing neonictinoids from their selves.

Also, Scotsdale Garden Centre has capitulated from Facebook pressure by its followers and will shortly remove neonicotinoids from their stores, too.

Oddly, the UK government has resisted banning neonicotinoids to safeguard not only the bees but soil organisms, birds that feed upon them and to obviate these chemicals from persisting in waterways for up to a decade of more.

Both the United States and UK have experienced a 50 percent drop in bee populations over the past 25 years. In 2012, UK and French researchers reported that neonicotinoids harm the bee’s navigation system. Bees exposed to neonicotinoids experienced high death rates and many were unable to find their way back to the hive.

In mid February (2013) The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) co-released a very disturbing study entitled: “State of the Science of Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals.” There are close to 800 chemicals known or suspected to be capable of disrupting the human endocrine system.

Chemicals found in insecticides, electronics, personal care products, cosmetics, and as additives or contaminants in food are known to disrupt human hormones. These toxic chemicals are also very evident in dust particles and waterways around the globe.

The UNEP and WHO study found the following:

Forty percent of young men in many countries have low sperm counts.

High rates of genital malformations in baby boys;

Adverse pregnancies including preterm births and low birth weights are occurring in many countries.

Global rates of endocrine related cancers like: breast, endometrial, ovarian, prostrate, and testicular and thyroid have significantly increased over the past half-century.

A dramatic worldwide trend toward earlier breast development in young girls and increases in the risk factor for breast cancer.

In addition, obesity and Type II diabetes are at an epidemic levels. The study notes that 1.5 billion adults, globally, are over weight. The number of people diagnosed with Type II diabetes has jumped in 1980 from 153 million to 347 million people by 2008.

The study concludes by noting that when endocrine disrupting chemicals are restricted — wildlife populations recover and overall ecosystem health problems abate.

The fact that the European Union is calling for a ban on neonicotinoids is a crucial first step. Friends of the Earth UK are to be congratulated for a successful campaign to raise awareness of the importance of our bees.

The bees provide humans with most of the food we eat including pollinating clover for both beef and dairy industries, the cotton we wear, 2.2 billion pounds of honey we consume annually, 44 million pounds of beeswax used annually, and powerful medicines to help fight arthritis, fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis.

The latest bee research from the UK is a breathtaking discovery revealing a rapid and dynamic communications between plants and bees with electrical signals.

It turns out that bumblebees carry a positive electrical charge because they fly in air, which is full of all kinds of tiny dust particles and other charge molecules. Friction from these particles causes the bumblebees to loose electrons leaving them with a positive charge.

Flowers, on the other hand, grow in the earth, they are grounded and therefore posses a negative charge.

When bumblebees land on a flower they generate their own electric field, a force is created. A tiny spark results when the two are connected. This appears to improve the bee’s memory of floral rewards e.g. nectar and pollen. The force enables bumblebees to also discern whether other bees have previously visited and fed upon the flower.

Clearly, it is crucial that we reduce the amount of toxicity in the environment. Currently, we use in excess of five billion pounds of insecticides, worldwide.

A recent U.S. study has found that populations of American bumblebee, the rusty-patched bumblebee, the western bumblebee and the yellow-banded bumblebee are all in trouble.

A new worldwide study found that wild bees are significantly better at pollinating that ‘managed’ honeybees. In fact, wild pollinators increased the full yield of fruit of 41 crops in 20 countries, whilst honeybees increased the yield by only 14 percent of the same crops. Worldwide we have very little data on populations of wild pollinators, which is all the more reason to immediately curtail the use of neonicotinoids.

In America the early reports of winter bee die-offs range between 40 and 50 percent (normal rates between 9 and 13 percent). This has caused the rental of 1.6 million beehives for the biggest pollination on Earth – California almonds to reach a rate of $200 a hive, an all-time record. There are simply just not enough healthy hives in the U.S. to pollinate the 760,000 acres of almond trees. As we poison bees the price of food continues to rise.

Have we reached what professor Rachel Carson warned us about in 1962? “Man’s attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we now have acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy Nature. But man is part of Nature, and his war is inevitably a war against himself.”

Australia, Radio 1, National: Ockham’s Razor

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Superstorm Sandy

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Bees and our Environment

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Great Barrier reef in Trouble

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Protecting our Oceans

Save the Oceans

Oceans Dying

Bees helping humankind

Save our Florida corals

Operation Bee founder testimonial

Earth Dr Reese Halter is an award-winning broadcaster and distinguished biologist. His latest books are The Insatiable Bark Beetle and The Incomparable Honeybee

Contact Earth Dr Reese Halter

Text © by Dr Reese Halter 2013. All rights reserved.

Story ran on Malibu Times Blog May 10, 2013

The oldest trees on Earth having been growing since before the construction of the pyramids and the advent of the written word.

The sedimentary White Mountains of east central California are home to the world’s oldest living trees – the venerable Great Basin bristlecone pines. Some of these trees have witnessed 1.6 million sunrises.

It seems fitting that the oldest trees on Earth should be living on layers of rock that started as sand and mud or shells deposited on the bottom of a shallow, warm sea 600 million years ago.

The White Mountains are the second-highest in California next to the Sierra Nevadas and the third-highest peak at 14,246 feet above sea level. Being located just east of the Sierras means that the White Mountains are dry. Most of the scant precipitation falls as snow, the remainder comes as isolated thunderstorms. From November to April the climate is inhospitable, with 100 mile-per-hour winds occurring frequently.

At two miles above sea level the ultraviolet radiation is extreme. July and August are the hottest months, with average temperatures rarely exceeding 50 degrees (F) and precipitation is a meager 12 inches per year.

Yet despite these harsh conditions, Great Basin bristlecone pines not only stand upright but thrive where no other of their race of 80,000 species can exist.

These remarkable trees eek out an existence not for just hundreds of years, nor a thousand years, but almost 5,000 years. The oldest known tree on planet Earth lives here. He’s called Methuselah.

He’s older than the pyramids; he’s older than writing; he’s older than the first written story; in fact he was already old as the first pyramid was being constructed.

How are bristlecone pines able to live for so long? They epitomize the word thrifty. They grow for only 45 days a year and very slowly. They produce copious amounts of gooey pitch that protects them from insects and deadly fungus. They continue growing for hundreds and possibly a thousand years even when 80 percent of their bark is removed—and they still produce viable seeds. Fire does not occur in these forests because there is little wood on the floor to burn. They live for so long that the soil beneath erodes away—they outgrow their sites.

As tree scientists learn the secrets of longevity, these exquisite Great Basin bristlecone pines will surely enable humans the opportunity, should they choose, to live longer.

Bristlecone pine trees and their rings are very sensitive to rainfall, and they accurately record past climates dating back, continuously, 8,700 years.

Scientists have found unprecedented Great Basin bristlecone pine tree ring growth since the mid-1950s, compared with the previous 3,500 years. This coincides with temperatures rising 3.6 degrees across the western mountains. Over the past three and a half millennia, none of the tree-ring growth matches what has occurred over the past five and a half decades.

Global warming is extremely dangerous for these ultimate mountaintop specialists of our planet, as they only know how to make haste slowly.

These extraordinary trees—“The Ancient Ones”—are facing an uncertain future, which contradicts their role as the gatekeepers to the Holy Grail: the secret to external life.

Australia, Radio 1, National: Ockham’s Razor

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Superstorm Sandy

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Bees and our Environment

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Great Barrier reef in Trouble

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Protecting our Oceans

Save the Oceans

Oceans Dying

Bees helping humankind

Save our Florida corals

Operation Bee founder testimonial

Earth Dr Reese Halter is an award-winning broadcaster and distinguished biologist. His latest books are The Insatiable Bark Beetle and The Incomparable Honeybee

Contact Earth Dr Reese Halter

Text © by Dr Reese Halter 2013. All rights reserved.

Story ran on Malibu Times Blog April 12, 2013

Honeybees are in serious trouble. 2013 overwinter death rates ranged from 40 to 90 percent across the U.S. and its 2.4 million commercial beehives. The American Honey Producers Association’s beekeeper of the year, Darren Fox of Cache County, Utah, reported losing 70 percent of his hives this past winter.

Beekeepers around the globe are all saying the same thing: Neonicotinoids (a group of insecticides) are wiping their bees out. The EPA is being sued by farmers and the following groups: Beyond Pesticides, the Center for Food Safety, the Pesticide Action Network North America, the Sierra Club and the Center for Environmental Health for keeping these lethal chemicals on the U.S. market (California has more than 300 kinds neonicotinoids on its fields).

Nature has a wonderful alternative to man-made poisonous insecticides; it’s the magnificent Indian neem tree, known globally as ‘the village pharmacy.’

Imagine one kind of tree that offers medicine, cosmetics, rope, tea, glue, wood, fertilizer, insecticides, lubricant, lighting and heating oil, veterinary medicine and shade.

Neem is native to India and Burma. It grows from the southern Indian tip of Kerala to the Himalayan hills. It spans both tropical and subtropical latitudes, from wet tropical to semi arid regions and from sea level to an elevation of 2,300 feet. It does not tolerate cold temperatures nor saturated soils.

These fast-growing, long-lived evergreen beauties can easily reach 100 feet in height with 8-foot girths and impressive regal crowns. Their profuse white mellifluous flowers bear fruit that at first glance resembles an olive.

The fruits have a sweet pulp that is an important source of food for birds, bats and baboons. A hard shell encases seeds known as a kernel—sometimes there are as many as three kernels in each fruit.

Neem has been introduced to over 30 countries around the globe including the following states: Arizona, California, Florida and Hawaii.

For three thousand years the Indian Ayurveda shamans have known of neem’s potent insecticide and medicinal properties.

The neem tree’s remarkable defense belongs to a class of compounds called triterpenes, more specifically limonoids. At least 9 of these limonoids block insect growth.

Azadirachtin is neem’s main defense. It blocks and disrupts growth and reproduction of insects. Both meliantriol and salannin prevent insects from feeding.

Extracts of neem are effective against at least 200 different insect species including locust, mosquitoes carrying malaria and voracious Australian blowflies.

At the same time, neem extracts are harmless to pollinators like bees, butterflies, moths, beetles and bats as well as beneficial insects such as spiders, ladybugs and dragonflies, as well as warm-blooded animals and birds.

Turplex, Azatin EC, Align, Bioneem and Margosan-O are all neem-based products available in America that protect crops.

Each of us has a crucial role to play this spring to assist America’s beleaguered bees. Do not use any insecticides, herbicides, fungicides or mitcides in your garden. Place a water bowl in your yard and replenish it daily – bees get thirsty as temperatures begin to rise.

In Malibu this Earth month, please provide a safe source of nectar and pollen for the Santa Monica Mountain bees by planting a pomegranate tree in your yard. Pomegranate fruit is loaded with vitamin C, B5 and delicious, fibrous edible seeds, which will help keep your family healthy.

Australia, Radio 1, National: Ockham’s Razor

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Superstorm Sandy

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Bees and our Environment

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Great Barrier reef in Trouble

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Protecting our Oceans

Save the Oceans

Oceans Dying

Bees helping humankind

Save our Florida corals

Operation Bee founder testimonial

Earth Dr Reese Halter is an award-winning broadcaster and distinguished biologist. His latest books are The Insatiable Bark Beetle and The Incomparable Honeybee

Contact Earth Dr Reese Halter

Text © by Dr Reese Halter 2013. All rights reserved.

Let me count the ways.

Transparency in government? What a joke!

Yesterday we talked about the real power in government being in the hands of the bureaucrats. Today let’s talk about one agency, EPA, and a scam that has been used for decades to get regulations written without the nuisance of allowing the public to have any input. These backroom deals have escalated since the Obama “Most Transparent Ever” came to office in 2009. The scam is called Sue and Settle. It is a way for activist groups who want an agency to write certain regulations while avoiding the requirements of the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). The APA was written in 1946 for the purpose of making regulations proposed by the various government agency completely transparent. The idea of the APA was that, for any proposed regulation, Congress, potentially affected interest groups, and the public would have a chance to have their input on the proposed regulation. This is a messy, costly, and lengthy process. So, radical environmental groups found a way to avoid this process.

What is Sue and Settle?

The Washington Examiner did back-to-back editorials on the subject of Sue and Settle. From the first editorial we learn how the Sue and Settle process works:

Here’s how the process works: First, the private environmental group sues the EPA in federal court seeking to force it to issue new regulations by a date certain. Then agency and group officials meet behind closed doors to hammer out a deal. Typically in the deal, the government agrees to do whatever the activists want. The last step occurs when the judge issues a consent decree that makes the deal the law of the land. No messy congressional hearings. No public comment period. No opportunity for anybody outside the privileged few to know how government regulatory policy is being shaped until it’s too late. _ (Emphasis added)

The article also tells us that, since Mr. Transparency Mr. Obama came to office, the EPA has done 71 Sue and Settle deals with environmental groups like the WildEarth Guardians, the Natural Resource Defense Council, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the Environment Defense Fund. And, here is the kicker. In 65% of those Sue and Settle cases, the EPA decided to let you, the tax payers, pay for the legal costs of the environmental groups. How sweet is that?

In the second Examiner editorial, we learn the Congress is aware of this scam.

Last year, the House approved the Sunshine for Regulatory Decrees and Settlements Act of 2012 that took vital first steps toward making sue and settle conform to the APA. The Senate, however, did nothing. As the chamber report explained, the act required that “before the agency and outside groups can file a proposed consent decree or settlement agreement with a court, the proposed consent decree or settlement has to be published in the Federal Register for 60 days to allow for public comment. Also, affected parties would be afforded an opportunity to intervene prior to the filing of the consent decree or settlement.” The act has been reintroduced in the House this year as H.R. 1493 and in the Senate as S. 714.

What are the chances of this passing the Senate? Right! If you are part of or know of a Tea Party group, get them on this or there will be no chance of stopping this despicable Sue and Settle process.

David Blackman at Forbes calls Sue and Settle a racket. After lauding the Washington Examiner for the good work they did on this subject, Mr. Blackman makes the case that some of these environmental groups; such as, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) are less interested in protect “endangered species” than they are stopping human progress. (The CBD has sued the Department of Fish and Wildlife several times.) In his investigation, he found some very telling comments by Kieran Suckling, head of the Center for Biological Diversity from an interview he gave to High Country News. Mr. Suckling was asked if his organization’s hiring of activists who lack science degrees had hurt CBD’s effectiveness. Here is how he answered:

“No. It was a key to our success. I think the professionalization of the environmental movement has injured it greatly. These kids get degrees in environmental conservation and wildlife management and come looking for jobs in the environmental movement. They’ve bought into resource management values and multiple use by the time they graduate. I’m more interested in hiring philosophers, linguists and poets. The core talent of a successful environmental activist is not science and law. It’s campaigning instinct. That’s not only not taught in the universities, it’s discouraged.” _ (Emphasis added)

Mr. Blackman continues with this beauty:

Mr. Suckling’s contempt also runs to those who staff the agencies he assaults with CBD’s “sue and settle” tactics, as he brags about the “psychological warfare” CBD and the other anti-development groups wage on these bureaucracies:

“New injunctions, new species listings and new bad press take a terrible toll on agency morale. When we stop the same timber sale three or four times running, the timber planners want to tear their hair out. They feel like their careers are being mocked and destroyed — and they are. So they become much more willing to play by our rules and at least get something done. Psychological warfare is a very underappreciated aspect of environmental campaigning.”

Interesting, isn’t it? The bureaucrats in the EPA and all the environmental groups mentioned in this post consider themselves to be part of the so-called “progressive movement”. Yet, what they really want is to stop progress.

So, there you have it, my friends. Another sterling example of how our government works. Are you as proud of them as I am?

Well, that’s what I’m thinking. What are your thoughts?

Story ran on Malibu Times Blog March 1, 2013

An Australian interviewer recently asked me, “of all the people throughout history, who would you like to spend time with?” Here’s my answer:

Leonardo da Vinci, born in the middle of the 15th century, was the founder of modern science and an interpreter between nature and humans.

He sought to understand the nature of life two centuries before the microscope was invented. He believed the earth was a living, self-organizing and self-regulating system.

Leonardo had exceptional powers of observation and a powerful visual memory. And his “sublime left hand” (as his friend and mathematician Luca Pacioli, called it) drew in excess of 100,000 drawings in more than 13,000 pages. Some 6,000 pages were preserved as manuscripts that are now in libraries and private collections. Others were preserved in larger forms known as codices, and are held by the British Royal family and Bill and Melinda Gates.

More than 100 years before either Galileo or Bacon, Leonardo developed a new empirical approach to science—systemic observations of nature, logical reasoning and some mathematical formulations, all the backbones of today’s scientific methods.

Leonardo’s uncanny ability to draw complex swirls of turbulent water and swift movements of birds was so accurate that nothing could match it until the advent of photography over three hundred years later.

He believed that in order to paint nature he must first understand it. Studying patterns in nature enabled him to transcend all boundaries.

His studies of muscles and bones lead him to invent gears and levers, interrelating physiology with engineering. His observations and recordings of turbulence in water led him to understand the flow of air, which in turn allowed him to explore sound, theory of music and the design of musical instruments.

His experiments in mathematics on continuous quantities came as a result of his incomparable drawings in nature. His science was inexorably linked to his art and vice versa.

The lists of his inventions—some 300—are phenomenal. They include small submarines for marine warfare, air bags, goggles and flippers for frogmen to bore holes in the planks of enemy ships, table lamps with variable intensities, opening and closing automatic doors using counter weights, folding furniture and a spit with variable speeds based on the intensity of the roasting fire.

As an architect he focused on design, which included villas, palaces and cathedrals, and he was often consulted as an expert on architectural problems.

In 1482 he witnessed the Bubonic Plague in Milan and quickly deduced the city’s appalling sanitation as the culprit. He submitted a proposal to rebuild the city with decent housing, shelters for animals and street to be regularly cleaned by flushing them with water.

He designed ideal cities to contain no more than 30,000 people with two levels – upper for pedestrians, lower for vehicles with stairs interconnecting them and underground canals to carry sewage away.

Leonardo worked on the human eye for more than 20 years and his research on optics, anatomy and neuroscience ranks amongst his finest achievements.

His renowned inventions of flying machines were truly amazing and all based upon thousands of hours of observing the birds on the hills outside Florence. Recently, his glider model was built and tested off the cliffs of southeastern England, and its engineers noted that it superseded the first attempts of the Wright Brothers in 1900.

His belief that all inventions came from nature’s blueprint occurred 500 years before the applied engineering field of biomimetics was created.

His love of nature and passion for all life stands as a beacon for all that is good in humankind, and I can’t help but think that even the master Renaissance designer, engineer and scientist knew so: “Read me, O reader, if in my words you find delight, for rarely in the world will one such as I be born again.”

Australia, Radio 1, National: Ockham’s Razor

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Superstorm Sandy

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Bees and our Environment

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Great Barrier reef in Trouble

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Protecting our Oceans

Save the Oceans

Oceans Dying

Bees helping humankind

Save our Florida corals

Operation Bee founder testimonial

Earth Dr Reese Halter is an award-winning broadcaster and distinguished biologist. His latest books are The Insatiable Bark Beetle and The Incomparable Honeybee

Contact Earth Dr Reese Halter

Text © by Dr Reese Halter 2013. All rights reserved.

Story ran on Malibu Times Blog April 6, 2013

Of 80,000 different kinds of trees on our planet, there can only be one king of the race. The Sequoias of the Sierra Nevadas hold that undisputed title.

It is fitting that the largest trees in the world—Sequoias, or as they are affectionately called, “Big Trees”—live on the spectacular snowy Sierra Nevada mountains, the backbone of California. On the west side, at the elevation of between 4,500 and 7,200 feet above sea level, 18 feet of snow fall each year. And incidentally, it’s this snow which sustains most of our 40 million inhabitants and millions of tourists each year.

So how big is Big Tree? Gigantic. An average tree can be 270 feet tall with a base 20 feet across. If a colossal ice age Columbia mammoth sauntered around the corner, it would seem small in the stupendous Sequoia forests.

Sequoias are one of the rarest trees, not just in America, but in the world. Their lineage dates back 100 million years or so. Fossil records clearly show of their existence in Europe, Asia, Greenland and the U.S. Midwest. Despite climate change, geologic upheavals and over-harvesting between 1850 and 1900, Sequoias thrive in about 75 groves along a 260-mile stretch on the western slopes of the Sierras.

These trees are exceptional but not just because of their size. They are extremely fast growing with extensive root systems. They probably reach 275 feet by the time they are 500 years old. The can live for over 3,000 years; that’s almost 1.1 million sunrises!

They have evolved with fire, and without fire the species future is in jeopardy. Their cones remain on the tree, shut tight, with viable seeds for up to two decades. The heat of the fire melts the resin around the cone scales and provides bare ground for the seeds to germinate upon. In addition, Sequoia cones are a critical food source for Douglas squirrels or chickarees.

There are few kinds of trees that can be hit by 100,000,000 volts of electricity—a bolt of lightning— and live. Sequoias can. No birds, mammals or disease can bother these giants. The wood is unpalatable for insects and fungus. The reason they eventually tumble is that they loose their feet. Repeated surface fires can damage structural roots enabling high winds and heavy snow loadings, especially in late spring when soil can be soggy, to force them over.

The largest living animals on Earth are blue whales—a couple blue whales would fit inside General Sherman, the largest living Sequoia, and tree of any kind, in the world.

This summer, consider visiting Sequoia National Park, it’s about a four-hour drive from Malibu, and find out why Sequoias are the noblest of a noble race.

Australia, Radio 1, National: Ockham’s Razor

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Superstorm Sandy

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Bees and our Environment

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Great Barrier reef in Trouble

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Protecting our Oceans

Save the Oceans

Oceans Dying

Bees helping humankind

Save our Florida corals

Operation Bee founder testimonial

Earth Dr Reese Halter is an award-winning broadcaster and distinguished biologist. His latest books are The Insatiable Bark Beetle and The Incomparable Honeybee

Contact Earth Dr Reese Halter

Text © by Dr Reese Halter 2013. All rights reserved.

Large shrub possesses host of medicinal properties that Native Americans have tapped for centuries

Story ran on Malibu Times Blog, May 17, 2013

Many Pacific plants have tremendous compounds to ward off fungal and bacterial infections. There may, however, be none stronger than coastal Pacific devil’s club.

Devil’s club is a rather prehistoric looking single-stemmed plant covered head-to-toe in armor with three-quarter-inch spines on its stem, leaf base and leaves. Its spine will cause severe skin irritation. It can grow 20 feet high with 14-inch leaves resembling a big leaf maple. It has small whitish flowers and reproduces from bright red berries or root layering, which is a natural form of clonal propagation.

Devil’s club occurs throughout the Pacific Northwest on moist, but well drained, rich forested ecosystems. It’s a member of the same family as Asian and Siberian ginseng, but does not contain similar ginsenosides or the active compounds as its cousins do. Devil’s club does, on the other hand, have potent properties to successfully combat antifungal, antiviral, antibacterial and antimycobacterial agents. That’s why it is being tested to combat Esherichia coli, Staphyloccus aureus and Bacillius subtilis.

Native Americans have known about devil’s club and its other properties for thousands of years. They revere this plant, and for good reason, for both medicinal and spiritual applications. In fact, they used the inner stem bark to treat over 34 different physical ailments including broken bones, type II diabetes and cancers. Whole stems, berries, leaves and roots contain active compounds to boost the human immune system.

Native Americans believe that devil’s club protects them against supernatural entities, epidemics and evil influences. During certain ceremonies the extract of the red berries is painted on shaman’s faces. It is said to fill them with supernatural powers.

Devil’s club has been illegally marketed as Alaskan ginseng. Commercially available tinctures, teas and capsules that contain devil’s club extract are harvested from roots. Some producers unfortunately are trying to take advantage of false ginseng properties which, by the way, only come from roots.

Devil’s club is harvested from wild plants. It is difficult to cultivate and presently there are no commercial cultivations producing the plant.

Harvesting roots from wild stock for commercial use kills plants and is not a sustainable practice.

Currently devil’s club is being tested for treatment of tuberculosis and AIDS. Its many medicinal properties make it an exciting plant which potentially will offer hope to those afflicted with dreadful diseases.

Wild forests are filled with exquisite webs of life, and devil’s club, which is an indicator of a rich, fertile site is proof that our diverse temperate Pacific forests contain more than just giant, old trees that are the finest carbon dioxide warehouse to have ever evolved on planet Earth.

It is time to protect our ancient forests and their medicines; a moratorium on harvesting all remaining ancient forests in America must occur now.

Elephants grieve at the death of conservationist Lawrence Anthony, South Africa

Australia, Radio 1, National: Ockham’s Razor

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Superstorm Sandy

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Bees and our Environment

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Great Barrier reef in Trouble

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Protecting our Oceans

Save the Oceans

Oceans Dying

Bees helping humankind

Save our Florida corals

Operation Bee founder testimonial

Earth Dr Reese Halter is an award-winning broadcaster and distinguished biologist. His latest books are The Insatiable Bark Beetle and The Incomparable Honeybee

Contact Earth Dr Reese Halter

Text © by Dr Reese Halter 2013. All rights reserved.

Story ran on Huffington Post April 5, 2013

The brutal ‘War Against Nature’ has nearly annihilated the Sumatran and Borneo elephants. And the prime culprit causing habitat loss is the rapacious and insatiable Indonesian palm oil plantation industry.

In addition to the corruption, which is rife throughout Indonesia’s protected forests – poachers have also slaughtered the elephants for their tusks feeding the burgeoning international ivory market.

Over the past year in excess of 18 Sumatran elephants have been murdered. On the island of Borneo a similar story is playing out with the critically endangered pygmy elephants. It is heartbreaking to watch a pygmy elephant calf mourn the loss of its mother in the Gunug Rara Forest Reserve.

Last month in Sydney, Australia, Leif Cocks, founder of The Orangutan Project and Project Leader Alex Mobrucker launched the International Elephant Project to help save the remaining wild Sumatran and Borneo elephants utilizing effective elephant conservation actions.

There’s less than 1,600 Sumatran elephants and about 1,000 Borneo pygmy elephants left on the globe. This is an epic crisis and these awesome animals are loosing their habitat in many cases due to illegal palm oil plantations.

The goal of the International Elephant Project is for the remaining elephants to live in the wild with their herds, and coexist peacefully with the indigenous peoples.

Please support the International Elephant Project they need help – now!

Australia, Radio 1, National: Ockham’s Razor

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Superstorm Sandy

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Bees and our Environment

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Great Barrier reef in Trouble

Australia, Radio 1, National, Overnight: Protecting our Oceans

Save the Oceans

Oceans Dying

Bees helping humankind

Save our Florida corals

Operation Bee founder testimonial

Earth Dr Reese Halter is an award-winning broadcaster and distinguished biologist. His latest books are The Insatiable Bark Beetle and The Incomparable Honeybee

Contact Earth Dr Reese Halter

Text © by Dr Reese Halter 2013. All rights reserved.

“If it’s wrong to wreck the climate, it’s wrong to profit from that wreckage.” That’s the slogan of the Fossil Free Movement, a campaign started by Bill McKibben and 350.org to persuade “educational and religious institutions, city and state governments, and other institutions that serve the public good” to divest from fossil fuels.

Naomi Klein is also involved in the campaign. In an article this week in The Nation, she points out that there’s one more target missing from the list. Believe it or not, that missing target is environmental organisations. No wonder the campaign missed them off the list. It’s a no brainer. Isn’t it?

Well, no. Some of the biggest environmental organisations in the world invest in fossil fuel companies. By a remarkable coincidence, the same environmental organisations are amongst the biggest promoters of REDD as a carbon trading mechanism. The Nature Conservancy. Conservation International. WWF. Environmental Defense Fund. Wildlife Conservation Society. Meanwhile think tanks such as the World Resources Institute, the Woods Hole Research Center and the Union of Concerned Scientists also invest in fossil fuel companies.

In her article, Klein points out that not all environmental organisations are involved in this scandal. By another remarkable coincidence, these organisations do not promote REDD as a carbon trading mechanism. Greenpeace, 350.org, Friends of the Earth, Rainforest Action Network, Oil Change International and the Climate Reality Project, do not invest in the stock market and either don’t accept corporate funding or place such onerous restrictions on funding that extractive industries are ruled out.

It’s interesting to see how the environmental organisations that profit from their investments in fossil fuel corporations reacted when Klein asked them about their investments and policies. The Nature Conservancy and Wildlife Conservation Society “completely refused to answer any of my questions or provide any further details about its holdings or policies”, Klein writes.

As Klein points out, it’s no wonder that The Nature Conservancy doesn’t have any qualms about profiting from the fossil fuel sector:

[I]n 2010, The Washington Post reported that TNC “has accepted nearly $10 million in cash and land contributions from BP and affiliated corporations”; it counts BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell among the members of its Business Council; Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy, one of the largest US coal-burning utilities, sits on its board of directors; and it runs various conservation projects claiming to “offset” the carbon emissions of oil, gas and coal companies.

The message from the divest campaign to Big Green is clear: “cut your ties with the fossils, or become one yourself”.

In addition to the article in The Nation, Klein has also produced a list of the environmental groups that are investing in fossil fuels.

The following are the environmental organisations and think tanks that invest in fossil fuels and promote REDD as a carbon trading mechanism, extracted from Klein’s list. Klein’s question in the headline is the right one under the circumstances. But there’s another question. Why on earth were environmental organisations investing in fossil fuels in the first place?

Is it really a coincidence that these organisations invest in fossil fuels and promote trading REDD credits to offset continued emissions in the global North? Of course not. It’s the logical conclusion of the sloppy thinking behind carbon trading.

The Nature Conservancy Endowment: $950 million Investments in publicly traded securities: $1.4 billion

What we know:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

• Refused to answer any questions or to provide any details about its holdings or policies
• Financial statements reveal it has at least $22.8 million invested in the energy sector
• Has relationships with fossil fuel companies including: BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell

Considering divestment?

• No comment

Conservation International Endowment: $25.8 million[1] Investments in publicly traded securities: $22 million

What we know:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

• Does not have any environmental screens on investments
• ”We do not have any explicit policy prohibiting investment in energy companies.” Patricia Yakabe Malentaqui, Spokesperson
• Has relationships with fossil fuel companies including: BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell

Considering divestment?

• No comment

World Wildlife Fund Endowment: $195 million Investments in publicly traded securities: $75 million

What we know:

• Refused to answer questions about whether it applies environmental screens to its mixed-asset funds
• “We don’t have direct investments, so we do not hold shares of any companies directly. Our investments are primarily through diversified funds.” Ian Morrison, Spokesperson

Considering divestment?

• ”We are interested in the issue you’ve raised and are actively engaged in our own internal discussions in this area.” Ian Morrison, Spokesperson

Environmental Defense Fund Endowment: $5.6 million Investments in publicly traded securities: $34.6 million

What we know:

• Did not disclose status of mixed assets, claiming information is “not public”
• No direct investments in fossil fuel companies: ”EDF does not own any equities or corporate bonds of fossil fuel companies.” Tony Kreindler, Spokesperson
• Working with Shell, Chevron, and other energy companies to promote “sustainable” fracking

Considering divestment?

• ”No, since we don’t own any equities or corporate bonds of fossil fuel companies.” Tony Kreindler, Spokesperson[2]

Wildlife Conservation Society Endowment: $377 million Investments in publicly traded securities: $36.3 million

What we know:

• Refused to answer any questions or to provide any details about its holdings or policies
• Has a subcategory of investments that includes “energy, mining, oil drilling, and agricultural businesses.”
• Partnered with Hess oil company

Considering divestment?

• No comment

Union of Concerned Scientists Endowment: N/A Investments in publicly traded securities: $30 million (Note: This is the current value of UCS’ “Board reserve” fund, which includes, but may not all be invested in, publicly traded securities)

What we know:

• Does not appear to screen managed fund investments for fossil fuels
• On $30 million “Board reserve”: “The reserve is invested in a variety of managed funds, and we are not directly invested with individual companies.” Cheryl Schaffer, Director of Finance & Administration
• From UCS’ investment policy: “In its choice of investments and of investment managers the Finance Committee will consider the broad environmental mission of UCS seeking to balance the need for strong financial performance with sustainable and responsible investment choices. The Finance Committee will attempt to seek investment managers that apply high ethical standards to their work.”

Considering divestment?

• “UCS has not yet discussed joining the divestment campaign.” —Cheryl Schaffer, Director of Finance & Administration

Woods Hole Research Center Endowment: $4.2 million Investments in publicly traded securities: $4.8 million

What we know:

• Investments are managed in accord with “social guidelines” for investing. “Those guidelines do not necessarily exclude all investments in all fossil fuel companies, but, in practice, none of the major multinational coal or oil companies pass their filter and their scoring system.”
• ”Firms must fall in the top quartile of their ranking process in order to be considered for investment.  There are some small companies with interests in fossil fuel industries that do.” Eric A. Davidson, WHRC President and Senior Scientist

Considering divestment?

• “We have recently learned that [our investment management firm] Trillium is offering its clients a new option of a fossil fuel free investment portfolio.  We are beginning to study that option, but are just in the early stages of that analysis.” Eric A. Davidson, WHRC President and Senior Scientist

World Resources Institute Endowment: $38 million Investments in publicly traded securities: $13 million

What we know:

• Refused to answer questions about whether or not it is invested in fossil fuels
• According to WRI investment policy: “In line with our mission, WRI is obligated to include [Environmental, Social, Governance] investment options when selecting new asset managers. We do not target a given percent of our investment allocation to ESG.”
• According to WRI investment policy: “Our investments support our mission and should be aligned with our mission and values such that we are not investing in companies/instruments that are less than fully transparent or insensitive to environmental or developmental issues.”
• Has “strategic relationship” with Shell Foundation, among other corporate relationships

Considering divestment?

• No comment

[1] Endowment/investment numbers confirmed by each organization or taken from most recent available IRS Form 990s or audited financial statements

[2] Under US law, nonprofits are not required to divulge their holdings in the stock market. Every group mentioned was asked to provide that information; no group did. And for this reason, we are unable to independently verify that any group is fully divested.

Story ran on Huffington Post April 30, 2013

The Arctic sea ice is melting at a phenomenal rate and the London-based Arctic Methane Emergency Group (AMEG) is calling for governments to put two and two together, and pull out all stops to save the Arctic sea ice or humankind will face starvation in the ensuing years ahead.

This week, the White House will hear evidence from Australian scientist, Carlos Duarte, that the Arctic sea ice is on such a downward spiral that we may see a dramatic decline of sea ice over the next two years. Evidence was given to the UK government last year from British scientists, Peter Wadhams and John Nissen, that we could see minimal sea ice by September 2015, simply extrapolating the sea ice volume trend. Evidence from recent satellite images suggests that a record melt is in progress this year. The plight of the Arctic was highlighted to British MPs and the Met Office in a recent showing of the film “Chasing Ice” at the House of Commons, London. The Arctic has recently become an issue in the European Parliament.

Research from US scientist, Dr Jennifer Francis, suggests that the retreat of sea ice is causing a disruption of jet stream behavior, producing weather extremes. Evidence was given to the UK government last year that the weather extremes being experienced in the UK and elsewhere could be due to this disruption of weather systems as the Arctic warms relative to the tropics. This evidence was reported by Robin McKie in the Observer, on 7th April in an article entitled: “Why our turbulent weather is getting harder to predict”. The weather extremes from last year are causing real problems for farmers, not only in the UK, but in US and many grain-producing countries. World food production can be expected to decline, with mass starvation inevitable. AMEG predicts that the price of food will rise inexorably, producing global unrest and making food security even more of a heightened issue.

Putting these two strands of evidence together, it is obvious that we face an ever worsening food crisis unless something dramatic is done straightaway to cool the Arctic and save the Arctic sea ice. This sounds impossible, but can be done. AMEG believes the best chance of success in cooling the Arctic quickly involves cloud cooling techniques, such as being developed by engineers Stephen Salter in the UK and Aaron Franklin in New Zealand. Salter’s technique could be deployed almost immediately.

Chair of AMEG John Nissen says “scientists acknowledge that the Arctic sea ice is a key component of the Earth’s temperature and climate control system. I fear that civilisation may not survive the abrupt climate change and other catastrophes which will be unleashed by late-summer disappearance of Arctic sea ice, likely within two or three years, so it is imperative that rapid action is taken to cool the Arctic sufficiently to prevent this disappearance – no doubt the most vital engineering challenge ever faced by mankind.”

Clearly the time for action is now.

Australia, Radio 1, National: Ockham’s Razor

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Earth Dr Reese Halter is an award-winning broadcaster and distinguished biologist. His latest books are The Insatiable Bark Beetle and The Incomparable Honeybee

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Text © by Dr Reese Halter 2013. All rights reserved.

The provider of data-powered solutions for B2B advertisers joins non-profit Environmental Defense Fund, which concurrently signed a long-term renewal for 44,010 square feet in the building.

(Credit: hotelchatter.com)

Built in 1912, the 20-story building is located at 21st Street and Park Avenue South, nestled between the Flatiron District and Gramercy Park neighborhoods.  Landmarks and sites in the neighborhood include Pete’s Tavern, Baruch College, Shake Shack, the Flatiron Building, and the Gramercy, Union Square and Madison Square Parks.

Other tenants include Team Detroit, a division of WPP; SpaFinder Wellness; and FedEx Office Print & Ship Center.

Brian Feil, vice president of leasing for The Feil Organization and Robert Fisher represented Feil in the transaction.  Mr. Feil could not be reached for immediate comment on the terms of the lease.

Marc Ellman, president of Ellman Realty Advisors, represented Madison Logic.  Mr. Ellman could be not reached by phone and did not immediately return emails seeking comment.

The EDF plans to implement several sustainability features in its new space at the building, which features brick masonry and terracotta adorned by gargoyles and Art Deco graphics.

“This is the perfect site and perfect building for the Fund to be in,” said Robert Fisher, director of commercial leasing for Feil, the building owner and manager, in a statement.  Mr. Fisher represented ownership with Brian Feil, the firm’s vice president of leasing.

“We have a great location near Union Square and Gramercy Park and 13.5-foot ceilings that offer extraordinary amounts of natural light and spectacular views of Gramercy Park,” Mr. Fisher added.

The EDF is a national organization that seeks to create transformational solutions to the most serious environmental problems by linking science, economics, law and innovative private-sector partnerships. It has been a tenant at 257 Park Avenue South, also known as the Gramercy Park Building, since 1996.

Built in 1912, the 20-story building is located at 21st Street and Park Avenue South, nestled between the Flatiron District and Gramercy Park neighborhoods.  Landmarks and sites in the neighborhood include Pete’s Tavern, Baruch College, Shake Shack, the Flatiron Building, and the Gramercy, Union Square and Madison Square Parks.

Other tenants include Team Detroit, a division of WPP; SpaFinder Wellness; and FedEx Office Print & Ship Center.

Alan Desino, executive managing director of Colliers International, represented the EDF.  Mr. Desino was unavailable for comment.

Mr. Feil did not immediately return calls seeking more information on the lease terms.

KNOxOUT Paint is the only paint in the world that actually cleans the air. Through the proprietary application of a special formulation of TiO2 (a common pigment used in most paint) a chemical reaction is set up that removes pollutants including NOx from the air.  The great news is that this is done by the creation of free radicals, with energy supplied by the sun, and atoms in the air. It does not create any volatile by-products, and it does not break down the paint.

For more information please visit http://ecodistributioninc.com/   

Look how it worked in Manila: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17751777

‘Paint Edsa Green’ project starts

May 09, 2011